Even a Devil May Love (ENG)
by Gab-169
Summary: 17 years old Devil Hunter Dante took on a new job that involves a trip to the land of the rising sun, many hot girls, Angels, Devils and lots of Rock & Roll. Will his life be changed after being surrounded by such strange new creatures? Or will he be the one to change the supernatural world forever? [AU. Will contain lemon in the future. Incorporates a few elements from the reboot]
1. Mission 01

**Hello there! Welcome to my story. This is a translated version of a story I have been writing since 2014. I noticed a huge amount of non-spanish speaking people read my story, I decided to make it easier for them to understand it without the need of Google Translate. Do keep in mind that English is not my first language and I'm well aware there may be many misspells and mistakes, so please, be so kind as to point them out. I'm open to all criticism and advice, and if someone wants to help me out by being a beta reader, I'd accept that too! So, let's leave the rambling behind. This is the first chapter of Even a Devil May Love. **

**Disclaimer: none of this belongs to me, each character from the DMC or DXD universe belongs to their rightful owners, this is a non-profit story. Every brand or product mentioned in the story also belongs to the corresponding owner of said intellectual property. **

* * *

Sweat drops ran through his skin. The temperature was higher than usual in the small town; the inclement heat harassed everyone with more fury than usual. Moreover, in his tiny, nameless office, it seemed to be even more vicious towards the teenager.

The young man opened his eyes. He was walking through the thin limbo between sleep and consciousness, but it was clear that despite the nightmares that did not let him rest on the night before, he did not wanted to finish crossing that line and escaping Morpheus's grasp.

His day would be as boring as ever, with little to distract his mind and many debts waiting for him, yes, it was not worth waking up after all.

He closed his eyelids again to ignore the sunlight that entered through the gaps in the erotic magazine that lay in his face. His stomach roared, demanding food, but as with the trivialities that were presented to him by his day-to-day routine during the last month, he chose to ignore it. His conscious began to descend through a dense darkness, gradually falling asleep again. It was a matter of a couple more minutes for his consciousness to fade.

That is what would have happened if the intense knocks did not suddenly come at his door.

He growled with annoyance and tried to ignore the noise, thinking it would pass in a little while. The only thing this served for was to make the knocks more persistent.

"I haven't open yet, come back later," exclaimed the silver-haired without abandoning his ratter comfortable position.

The knock at his door did not stop but rather the onslaught continued to the point where he got so annoyed that he took the magazine off his face and lowered his feet from his desk to focus his view on the door.

"I said it's not open yet. If you came to collect something, I don't have any money either, so come later!"

Eventually the knocking stopped, which fostered a heavy sigh in the teenager. He was about to try regaining his sleep again, but before that happened, the door slammed open.

The young Devil Hunter did not flinch, though he did frown with some irritation. He crossed out his arms and reclined his chair back a little as he laid his eyes on the individual who had just entered his 'office.'

"Boy! It's three o'clock in the afternoon, are you still sleeping?" shouted a short, chubby middle-aged man.

The silver haired half-breed yawned and stretched out his arms.

"Yeah, what do you want? Did you bring me a job or you just came to bother me?" was his boredom filled reply after he yawned.

"Hey! Is that how you treat your only friend, old Enzo?" he bellowed in a very remarkable Italian accent as he shook his hand up and down "After all I've done for you, you tell me I annoy you? That hurts, boy!"

"Uh huh..."he muttered with disinterest as he rummaged through a pizza box that already had several days on his desk.

The young man pulled out one of the last slices, a stale scent hit him as he took a whiff. It caused him to wrinkle his face with revulsion but after a few seconds, he still took a bite.

Enzo Ferino, his agent, stopped his melodramatic monologue and observed him with a mixed expression of disgust and perplexity.

"Are you really eating that?"

"What? It's not like I have anything else to eat," he replied, shrugging off.

The lad took a bottle that lay on the floor beside his chair and waved it to check if it still had beer left to help him pass the bitter taste of the decomposed pizza. Like the rest of the whiskey and beer bottles scattered in his small place, it was empty. He sighed with mild disappointment and threw it against the wall. The Ferino got startled when the bottle shattered and glass shards flew everywhere.

"Be careful!" yelled the man, crouching in his spot.

"What do you want, Enzo?" he asked again, this time the irritation was clearly marked in his voice.

The chubby Agent did not reply right away. Rather he sketched a smile that the teenager already knew very well, a pernicious smile that indicated that he had come across something very profitable. He straightened up his posture with that smile still drawn on his lips and rubbed his hands covered in black gloves and full of gold rings.

The silver-haired arched an eyebrow and looked at him with suspicion.

"Is it a gig?"

"Oh, Tony, you can't even start to imagine. It's perfect for you, a really good gig. "

Noticing his body language and all the time he was taking to specify the details of the job, Tony Redgrave dropped the slice of half-eaten pizza over the box and focused his attention on the man who doubled him in age and who was dressed in a fur coat, accompanied by a red scarf, a fedora hat and shades. In any context, Enzo was a suspicious man.

"If it's one of those stupid jobs you always bring me, forget it. I'm not going to be following unfaithful husbands around and after the L.A. fiasco I told you I wouldn't take any more escort jobs" he spoke preemptively in a very harsh tone.

"Stupid jobs? It's the best I can get you! It's not as if your reputation is very good after what happened at Bobby's Cellar, boy! Besides, you know that paranormal jobs are very hard to come by outside the Syndicate."

The Redgrave shook his head; annoyed at the fact he did not have a good response to disagree with him. He put his hands on the back of his head and clicked his tongue as he looked away.

"So? What is it?"

"It's exactly what you need, Tony my boy!"

The man pulled out a folder from under his armpit and threw it at the Hunter's desk. The file fell just beside to a small, broken TV that lay on the black wooden table that was already peeling off by moisture, wear, and weather.

The response albeit a little cryptic, managed to capture the Redgrave's attention. He settled into his seat and opened the folder to proceed to read it.

"Does it meet all three requirements?"

"Yes, yes. But more important than that, it's a good pay," replied the man quickly in an anxious voice tone.

The reply caused Tony to close the file and raise his slightly frowning face to look at the Ferino.

"What are the three rules?"

"..."

"..."

"Are you really going to make me repeat that every time I bring a job?"

"As you keep forgetting it, yeah, I will make you repeat it whenever necessary. Now... what are they?"

Enzo let out a long sigh of annoyance, took off his hat for a moment and passed a hand through his balding head.

"First rule...," he began, with great effort due to how stupid he thought it was to say the 'requirements' of the silver-haired for him to take a job. "The job must seem interesting to you. Rule number two, nothing that involves civilians, innocent people or unnecessary bloodshed..."

"Uh huh and the third one?"

The Italian-descendant scratched his head with hints of baldness and put on his hat again before continuing.

"The gig must have a certain 'something' that catches your eye," he finished up, with a great deal of frustration.

"Exactly, so... does this job meet the requirements? "

"Yes, it checks out."

"We'll see."

Tony reopened the folder and started going over it, this time paying more attention.

"A mercenary with ethics...," the Agent mumbled softly with annoyance.

"Did you say something?"

"Ah! No! I was just thinking to myself how endearing your code for a paranormal investigator is!"

"Hmmm..."

The Ferino relaxed a little noting that weirdly for him, Redgrave stopped to read the file instead of looking at it without giving it much of a though. In the minutes it would take the teenager to read all the information regarding the job, Enzo took the advantage to look at the pigsty where his disastrous business partner operated.

It was to no one's surprise that he was still as messy as when both started working together two years ago. The 'office' in itself was not that big of a deal, it was a small, 130 feet by 130 feet square abandoned place, located in the worst ghetto of Limbo City. The space seemed even more reduced by the boxes swarming a corner, boxes he already knew contained DVDs, cassettes and vinyl records from hits of the eighties and nineties, including the teen's favorite movies and songs. In addition to countless artifacts and electronic devices from that time period, that apart from being obsolete, he was almost certain the vast majority were broken already and the Redgrave only kept them because he thought they possessed some kind of hidden value and that 'in a couple of years' people would remember it's true value and they could cost a small fortune, or so the young Hunter said. Apart from that, two baskets from which he could not distinguish which one was supposed to have the dirty laundry as both seemed awfully stained. A small worktable with a shotgun that was half-sawed off, perhaps by the teen's laziness or simple lack of interest in finishing the project. On the opposite wall however, there was a paraphernalia of variety of firearms hanging from the red brick wall. Even a couple of swords and a few skulls of creatures of the night kept as trophies from the young man's previous jobs. On top of that, there were also three, nine strings guitars and two guitar basses. That said, all of that didn't sounded so bad, of course to reach that conclusion you would have to ignore the immense number of empty pizza boxes stacked on top of each other until they formed a small hill of sorts and the tons of empty liquor bottles scattered everywhere. It wasn't hard to assume the place did not smell like spring flowers. At the center of that whole mess? Tony's desk.

"Damn, boy. This place is disgusting... even more than usual," complained Enzo while covering his nose with the back of his hand. He stopped his whining when he detected movement coming from between the pizza boxes on the floor, he recoiled a couple of steps as he saw a gigantic rat peeking out it's snout like it was looking for a prey to devour "Is that a rat or a wiener dog!?" He exclaimed, taking another couple of steps back with apprehension.

"Huh?" mumbled the silver-haired lad, raising his head for a moment, "Ah, yeah. I have an infestation," he replied by turning his attention back to the file. Without checking where the rodent really was, he opened a drawer from his desk and pulled out a highly modified silver Colt M1911 that he pointed in the general direction of the pizza boxes.

"ARE YOU INSANE?! You're going to attract the cops!" the Ferino bawled, startling and moving away from the line of fire.

"What? You're the one taking an issue by the rat. Besides, I don't have the money to hire an exterminator," shrugged the Redgrave.

"F-for now leave it be, I don't want you to be shooting that thing in here."

"Whatever," he retorted, putting away his 'Ivory' pistol back in the drawer, where it's twin rested.

"Maybe you can give it a name and make it your pet," the Italian-descendant said jokingly although with some nervousness left from Tony's solution to the pest problem.

"I already did. His name is Mickey."

"…Mouse?" he questioned with confusion on his face.

"No, Mickey Rourke."

"Ah...," he stopped for a couple of seconds to reflect on the exchange and scratched his chin before looking at the teenager again "You do know that you're absolutely batshit insane, right?"

"Hey, at least I'm the funniest guy at parties. Tell me something, Enzo. What's with this job? The only thing I see in this file is pictures of hot girls, names, surnames... bust sizes...? What the...? What is this? You've never been so professional; you usually just give me a name and an address. Why all this protocol now? "

Ferino grinned again with that goofy but disturbing smile. If he did not had the shades on, the silver-haired could have distinguished the glint of greed in the Agent's eyes.

"You haven't been reading the file, have you? You've only been looking at the pictures of the girls."

"Uhm..." the Redgrave refused to answer as to not agree with the man and to also try to mask his own short attention span for the written information contained in the file. "No, I did read it. But anyways, give me a summary" he said, now looking at his Agent.

"Do you like sushi?"

"No." was the almost instant reply.

"Uh, well, I don't like Chinese either."

The Hunter raised an eyebrow and scratched the back of his head with confusion.

"I thought sushi was Japanese."

"It's the same thing. Slanted eyes, they all speak funny, they're all the same to me."

"Anyways, you're not telling me what this gig is about" he quickly opened the folder to read one of the sheets "What's with this...Ku-Kuoh Academy? What is it with all these girls that look like models?"

"They're your objective, kid. They are all devils, every single one of them that appears in those photos. That school is infested and it's your job to be the pest exterminator."

"Really? They look too human to be devils. I'd even go as far as to say I'd like to ask one of them out."

"Ask them out if you want to, grab a cup of coffee, get to third base, but the job is to kill them."

"Hmm...", he mumbled as he held up the picture of a girl who appeared to be around his same age, European features, fiery red hair and blue eyes like polished sapphires to accompany an enviable sculptural body. Each photo was attached with a clip to a data sheet containing information about the person; there he read her name "Rias Gremory? What a weird name. Well, it sounds simple enough. I've never seen devils that look like this, but that won't matter after I put a bullet through their skulls. How much is the pay and where are they at?"

"The pay is the best part, Tony," laughed the man with an almost childlike enthusiasm, "It's a hundred grand, half up front, can you believe it? We're in the big leagues now!"

The teen's blue eyes widened open as he heard the sentence.

"Fifty grand in advance? Now that I like. With that, I could pay off almost all of my debts and I would still have enough left to eat something decent, hell, I could even bet something on next week's game"

"Are you still betting? You're one of the most unluckiest people I've ever known. Remember when you bet five grand on the Diggers beating the Red Sox?"

"Ugh... Don't remind me, it still hurts. But I'm sure this season we'll have better luck, the next game against the Yankees will be a walk in the park."

"Oh, right. They're going to play in Diggers territory, aren't they? You gonna watch the game at the stadium?"

The hunter's excited expression changed momentarily, his face filled with gloominess and guilt but he managed to hide it before the Agent could notice.

"No... You know I left Redgrave City for a reason."

"Hmm... True. Well, what do you say? When you gonna start?"

"Wait, wait. I haven't said I will do it yet. Where exactly are these devils? And why are they wearing these ridiculous uniforms?"

"Ah, right... yes, that's the thing, Tony. This job is a little different than usual."

"What do you mean? Different how?"

"The first thing you need to do is travel to where they are, and then you have to infiltrate and attack without raising too much attention."

"Without raising too much... What? Where do I have to go?" he inquired, giving the man a bemused look.

Enzo pointed at the file, which made the Redgrave lower his sights and switch pages until he returned to the first one.

"Kuoh Academy in Kuoh District, prefecture of... Wait, wait, wait! Japan? Are you serious?!"

"What is it? You're not afraid of planes, are you?"

"It's not the planes. It's…"

The silver haired teenager slammed the folder shut and slid it across his desk towards the man for him to take it back.

"I won't take the job."

"What! Why?" shouted the chubby 'entrepreneur'.

"I'm not gonna do it, Enzo. I won't go to Japan, and if by infiltrating you mean I have to enroll on that school, then you mistook me for some else, I'm no schoolboy."

Enzo Ferino opened his eyes so much that they almost came right out of their orbits. His heart started racing so much it appeared he was about to get a tachycardia attack.

"Kid, kid, what's going on? You were interested at first. What's the matter? It'll just be a short trip, just a couple of days. You'll be back before the game!"

"I won't" he replied in a harsh tone. His gaze got lost for an instant in which in his mind was projected the image of two children playing on the shores of a beach, a blonde woman and a silver-haired man watching them from afar. A memory so deeply buried it gave him a strong headache, as if he was remembering something that should remain suppressed or that he did not had to remember in the first place.

"Tony, Tony, you can't do this to me. You always complain I don't bring you interesting or good jobs, I finally brought you one that is all of that and it pays really well. Are you really going to reject it just like that? It's simple, you just have to go to a school for a couple of days and kill some demons that are probably eating the students, it's a simple task for you! Why you don't wanna take it?"

"I don't know man…it just…it gives me a bad feeling, that's all" said the teenager, making up an excuse, not wanting to have to explain the influx of emotions that brought him just mentioning the land of the rising sun. Reflecting on that caused him tremendous pain that he himself could not fully comprehend.

"Bad feeling? You? When have you ever gotten a bad feeling about anything?"

"Give the job to another hunter, or take it to the Syndicate if you want to, I don't care."

"I can't give it to anyone else! The client requested for you specifically and only you. I'm sure he was impressed with your previous jobs."

"Did he really asked for me?" questioned the lad, puzzled by such thing.

"Yes!"

"Well... give the job to someone else and tell the client that person is Tony, or tell him I'm busy with another job and it'll take me some time to finish it."

"Tony, boy. I can't do that."

"Why?"

Pulling a robust yellow envelope was enough of an answer from the Agent. The Devil Hunter sighed with annoyance and shook his head.

"You took the job?"

"What else could I do? It's a hundred grand, how can I turn that down?"

"Damn it, Enzo. You greedy fatso."

"What else could I do? I took it because I thought you'd have no problem doing the job."

"Just return the money then."

"I can't. I don't even know where the client is. The guy came to me all of a sudden when I was having a drink at Bull's Eye's and told me he needed to solve a problem with devils and that only you were able to do it. He said something about a Dark Knight or something and a lot of nonsense I didn't understood, but what's really important here is the cash, kid. He told me that when the job was done, he would come to give us the other half of the payment."

The teen's expression changed suddenly when he heard the part about the Dark Knight. While a few moments ago he looked mildly annoyed, now he seemed bewildered and even a little intrigued. However, he still shook his head again.

"You're an idiot."

"Come on, boy. Do this for me, for your old friend, Enzo. It'll only be a few days; it's a quick buck for the both of us"

He looked at the man standing in front of him; he rubbed his neck as he cussed in a low voice tone with irritation. He looked at the man for a couple more of seconds and lowered his sight to focus on a portrait resting on his desk. It was a photo of a beautiful blonde woman dressed in a black dress with a red shawl over her shoulders. He looked at the picture as if he were seeking approval from the woman. His gaze softened considerably as he saw that person's green eyes. A few seconds passed in complete silence.

The silver haired cleared his throat and looked up at Ferino again.

"Why do I always have to get your ass out of trouble?"

Bright eyes replaced the look of anguish on the man when he saw that the boy relaxed his stance on the job, even if it was a little.

"Because you're a good boy, Tony! Are you gonna do it?"

"Do you have a coin?" the lad replied with a question, "Let's leave it to chance. If you're lucky, then I'll take the job, if you're not, forget about it."

Enzo nodded promptly. This was his chance, fortune did not always smile at him, but at least it did much more often than with the teenager who always lost every bet he made.

The chubby man pulled out a fifty-cent coin from his pocket.

"Heads or tails?"

"Heads" the silver haired replied, shrugging.

The Italian-descendant tossed the coin. He was going to wait for it to fall on his hand so he could see the verdict. Before his nervous system could even register the order, the Hunter got up from his seat and caught the penny. He took a seat again and looked at his Agent before opening his hand.

It fell in tails.

The young man grumbled and threw the coin back at him. A smile of victory was drawn on the man's face. Had it not been for his considerable body weight, he would have hop in excitement.

"All right. I'll take the job. But only if it's just a couple of days! I want to be back here before the game."

"I'm glad you reconsidered it, kid!"

"I'll take it on one condition."

"Which one?"

"Another bet," the silver haired grinned.

"You want to lose again, boy?"

"I don't think I'm going to lose this one."

"What's the bet?"

"That you're not able to stay out of trouble before I get back. If you do and I have to save your ass again, you'll give me a pizza."

"_That's a really low stakes bet_," thought the man to himself, to which he replied with an offended tone, "Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"Yes." Interrupted the teenager.

Enzo ignored him and continued talking, despite the twitching in his eye.

"I'm perfectly capable of keeping myself out of trouble, boy! And what do I get if I win?"

"I'll buy you two rounds at Bull's Eye's."

"I would never say no to a few free drinks, but that's a very silly bet, don't you think?"

The Redgrave shrugged and wrinkled his brow.

"I just want to see if you're capable of lasting two days without screwing up. It's a pain in the ass having to help you out all the time."

"You're a terrible friend to old man, Enzo, boy. If you weren't so talented, I'd have stopped being your agent by now."

"I doubt you can get another fool to help you fund your nights at the strip club," the teenager laughed before reclining back in his chair.

"Hey! I'm a very good Agent!"

"Uh huh, I won't keep you from believing your own delusions."

The Ferino shook his head and placed the envelope on his partner's desk, then pulled out a cigar.

"That's everything you need. There's your money, minus my ten percent and what you owed me, of course," he said in a few decibels lower than his usual lousy voice tone "keys for an apartment where you're gonna stay, the plane ticket, the flight itinerary, and the address of a place where you have to leave all the equipment you want to take. They will take care of shipping your weapons."

"Uh... How considerate from the client."

"That's what I'm talking about! We're already in the big leagues, Tony" he shouted, extending his arms to each side "From now on everything's going to get better, you'll see. Who knows, maybe in a few more years you can set up a decent office and we could become a real agency. How about that?" he continued, walking backwards towards the exit.

"What's wrong with the office I already have?" the lad asked with a raised eyebrow and a genuine tone of confusion.

"Everything! It's a filthy dumpster that leaks when it rains, but you'll see! I have a feeling we're on the right track."

The chubby man lit his cigar and immediately left the place, knowing very well the teenager would get irritated at the cheap tobacco smoke.

"I'll go to Love Planet; I want my beautiful Tatiana to give me a lap dance. Good things are on the way, boy, very good things! Don't forget your passport!" exclaimed Ferino before closing the door and leaving.

Tony sighed again. He took the envelope and gave it a quick look, he wasn't very interested in counting the money, he knew Enzo was an idiot but not enough to steal from him. He put it aside and opened the file again; it opened right at the picture of the red-haired girl. He looked at her for a couple of seconds before setting his sight on the picture of his mother, Eva, then he raised his eyes towards the pierced ceiling and let go off a deep sigh.

"_Why Japan? Why now...?"_ Thought to himself as that scene returned to his mind.

The rest of his day went appallingly fast. He used a part of the money to pay off some of his debts. He was able to dine pizza that wasn't spoiled and drank a few bottles of Jack Daniel's. Apart of that he sent money for two orphans in Redgrave City, and spent what was left of the day in his office. In a normal case, he would have gone to his favorite bar, Bull's Eye, but for some reason he didn't felt in the mood to drink in public, rather he wanted to spend the rest of the day alone with himself, something he was more than accustomed to. According to his itinerary, the flight would be the next day; it was not going to be a direct flight as it would have two stopovers so it was going to be a long trip.

As the hardware he was going to use, he packed his trusty sword The Rebellion and his two twin handguns Ebony and Ivory. There was no need for any other weapon as he considered it a simple job. In the guitar case where he kept the tools of his trade, he also packed two alchemical artifacts, two star-shaped crystals. One was green, a vital star, while the other was orange and a little more mysterious. As luggage, he packed in a backpack a few changes of clothes, including a red outfit, the usual attire he wore when he hunted. In another case, he put his favorite guitar. That is all he needed for the trip.

The next morning he dressed up in a red leather trench coat, a simple white cotton shirt, tan jeans, fingerless gloves and a pair of combat boots.

Before leaving, he made a pause to watch again the photo of his mother. He didn't say anything, he didn't try to converse with Eva's portrait, he just looked at her, as if he was recording her appearance in his mind, as if he was afraid to forget her appearance on that short trip. He grabbed the amulet that hanged from his neck, the last memento from his mother. He remained like that for a couple more of minutes, but he could not keep it up. He needed to leave his hardware at the drop-off point and get to his flight on time. He caressed his mother's image with his fingertips and laid down the portrait. "I won't be long, Mom" he whispered softly before getting up from his desk.

He took a box of leftover pizza from the previous day and left it on the floor with the lid open so Mickey would have something to eat in the time he would be away.

Tony Redgrave went out the doorway and closed the door behind him. He looked up at the sky of Limbo City and a very confident grin was drawn on his lips, born from the excitement of starting a new adventure.

"Party's about to start."


	2. Mission 02

**Hey everyone, how's everything? Here's the second chapter. It took longer than expected because I've been rewriting the original story, least the first ten chapters will get reworked, so I'll do that on par of the translation so don't expect very regular updates until I've finished that. Maybe two or three chapters per month, the good thing thought is the chapters will not be too short. Thanks for the reviews! I would love to answer them but I don't want to take more space than needed here. Now, let's get to the reading! **

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He opened the door and entered the apartment, dropping the bag with his clothes on the floor; yet having a little more delicacy with the guitar case that he let resting against a sofa that was next to the entrance hall.

On one side of the modest house was a small garage for a compact car, attached to that garage, a tiny laundry room. You could not enter from the house, for some reason. To enter you had to leave the house and go to the garage through a door in the front or by raising the metal curtain that was next to that door. He wasn't sure if it was a design error but almost every house in the block had that peculiar feature.

The teenager put his hands in his pockets and inspected the place. It was his first time being in a Japanese-style house. The family mansion in which he lived the few years he was in the country was of European architecture, quite different from the humble house he was in right now. It seemed more like a place for college students or a couple who just became independent.

Although by Western standards, the house was reduced in space, in Japan it was a fairly decent home. At the entrance, there were two steps before entering through the front door, then followed the genkan to change shoes for slippers or uwabaki, which the teenager of course had not noticed, being unaware of such a custom. He even found that empty space between the entrance and the living room rather strange.

Once the tiny genkan was passed through, it was quite easy to locate oneself in the house. On the left side, there was the living room. Close to the wall was a gray sofa, in front of it a thirty-four-inch TV resting on a small TV stand. In the middle of both, the floor was covered by tatami on which rested a chabudai table for breakfast or to just sit and watch TV in case of not wanting to use the sofa. On the right side was the kitchen consisting of several drawers, a recessed grill with four stoves, an elongated table separating the grill from a built-in oven and next to the oven, a sink. Across the kitchen, there was a counter-like table attached to a wall and to the arch of the threshold of the kitchen. This counter served to limit the space of the kitchen and to give it some privacy, even if it was slight. On the other side of the counter, from where the Redgrave was standing, there were two stools, giving a hint this counter could be used for breakfast, studying or work, even for cooking if the space in the kitchen was not enough.

He moved towards the bottom of the house. Passing the kitchen and living room, a hall separated the bedrooms from the rest of the house. He took ten steps and found himself with three doors, one in front, one on his right and one on his left. When he opened the one on the right, he saw that it was a room with a single bed close to a wall and the window, a closet and empty space. He closed the door and then opened the one on the left. Now his gaze met a bathroom slightly larger than the room he had just observed. The entire floor was covered with white tiles. There was a sink with a mirror, a couple of feet away a simple toilet whose pipe was connected to the sink for some reason. In the back there was a shower hidden behind a blue curtain. He turned off the light and closed the door.

Finally, he opened the last door. It was the main room, it was noticeable by the double bed and because it had much more space than the other room. Resting on the red sheets was a guitar case that caught his attention.

He turned on the light and entered the place. The first thing he did was open the case. He sighed in relief when he saw that his weapons were there, Rebellion, Ebony and Ivory, just as Enzo had said, the client kept his word.

He closed the case, held it and leaned it against a bedside table that was on the right side of the bed.

He sat on the edge of the mattress. The lad stood and dropped himself a couple of times, feeling how soft the bed was. For him who has not slept in a bed in years, feeling this was like touching a cloud or a marshmallow. Without taking off his boots or the trench coat he wore during the entire trip, he threw himself on the deliciously soft mattress. The trip was long and he barely slept. He was not completely exhausted, or at least not as a normal human would be, but he was bored and his mind was tired. He closed his eyes and let himself be carried away by the dream current that wanted to drag him off.

* * *

/?/

(….)

His eyes burned with the dryness that caused him the black smoke, his ears were still ringing, despite how disoriented he felt he kept running in search of his mother who in turn left to look for his twin.

Burning wood crumbled everywhere, the whole house was falling apart because of the fire. He felt terrified; from the closet where he had hidden, he could hear the roars of whatever was stalking Sparda's household, and despite his fear, a cry of agony was what forced him out, a cry produced by Eva, his mother.

It did not took him long to meet his progenitor. She was collapsed on the ground, a red pool had formed beneath her. As he got closer, he could notice that there were some deep gashes on her back.

The dryness of his eyes was alleviated a little by the torrent of tears that came from seeing his mother in that state. The intense pain in his chest forced him to kneel. The boy crawled between sobs until he reached Eva's lifeless body. He hugged her and turned her around to see into her lifeless eyes, then he let out a scream full of helplessness and pain as he shook her in vain in an attempt to wake her up. He called her repeatedly, again and again without an answer from her.

His arms and legs had lost all strength; he stuck his face to his mother's chest and continued to cry, not knowing what else to do. What could he do without his mother? How could he go on without her?

A flash in his mind pulled him out of that trance. 'I have to find Vergil.' Yes, he had to finish his mother's search; otherwise, her death would have been in vain. He tried to stand up but his legs were too shaky, his arms were lacking strength, he could barely stand but he was not going to give up so easily. An abrupt shriek behind him drew his attention.

Whatever made it moved so fast that it barely gave him time to distinguish it. The only thing he was able to discern was a shadow the size of a small dog with spindly, sharp legs, like those of a spider.

Suddenly everything just went dark for him.

* * *

(20:38 pm…)

/Kuoh Town/

His eyes opened as wide as possible as he let out a gasp for air. He could still feel the heaviness in his lungs due to the black smoke. The young man jumped out of bed and stood up, it was not hot, the weather was very cool, and despite that, his body was drenched in sweat. He staggered a little and put a hand in his forehead. His head seemed like it was going to explode from the intense migraine. Although the emotions of that nightmare were still vivid in his heart, that dream faded from his memory.

"W-what did I dreamed of ...?" He asked himself, still holding his head.

The nightmares were constant; he could remember some of his dreams, but not most of them. It seemed that those that were not forgotten shortly after waking up had to do with recent events in his life, but the farther the memory was, the easier it was to forget the nightmare. It felt like he had a barrier of sorts in his mind that blocked most of his childhood memories, and that in turn made nightmares harder to remember. But not the feelings, not the pain, not the fear, those remained even after waking up.

It had been a while since the last time he had a nightmare so intense, so vivid that it shook his very being.

He hit his forehead a couple of times with his palm and clenched his teeth trying to withstand the migraine. After a few minutes resting his hands and forehead against the wall, he let go of a sigh and turned around. He looked at the time on the alarm clock on the bedside table.

The teenager let go off a heavy sigh and shook his head from side to side.

"I need a drink...," he muttered to himself.

As he walked to the door, he noticed the closet. It was open; he spotted three sets of what appeared to be school uniforms. The lad touched the sleeve of one of the blazers and let out a growl of annoyance. He still could not fathom how ridiculous the idea of having to go to school to finish the job was. He ignored that for the time being, right now, he did not wanted to think about anything, he just wanted to have a strong drink and satiate his appetite.

He left the room and momentarily entered the bathroom to wash his face. He looked at the face staring at him from the mirror. It was the face of a normal teenager, but there was something odder than his platinum blue eyes and gray hair. His gaze, there was a void behind his eyes that seemed to absorb all the light in his gaze and in addition to that void there was a silent fury, a calmed hostility like a beast waiting to be awakened to wipe out everything around it ... and even more than all of that , a great affliction and an immeasurable guilt. It was the face of a teenager, but it was a face too tired to be in someone his age.

He averted his eyes, not wanting to keep looking at that face. There was a reason why he didn't have mirrors in his office. He turned off the light and left the bathroom. He then entered the kitchen, when he passed through the 'threshold'; he found the fridge. There were a few notes attached to the refrigerator. Numbers of local authorities such as police, firefighters and emergencies but also the number and address of a local pizzeria. He looked back; there was a landline in the archway of the kitchen entrance. He debated with himself for a few seconds whether to call or just go to the pizzeria. He opened the fridge to make sure if there was anything to eat, the only thing inside was a jug of water. He closed it again and took off the note from the fridge, there was no point staying at home. It was a fresh night in a country where he had not been in for many years, he was thirsty and wanted to stretch his legs out and it would also be helpful to practice his Japanese, it's been years since the last time he spoke it.

Tony took the keys and made sure he had his wallet in his pocket before leaving the house.

* * *

(21:10…)

/In a Konbini nearby downtown/

"What the hell do you mean I can't buy alcohol!" He roared in perfectly fluent Japanese, although of course, with a noticeable accent due to the difference in phonetics.

"I-I'm sorry, dear customer, but I can't sell this to a minor!" Said the cashier of the convenience store.

On the counter were eight bottles of Jack Daniel's, four bottles of cold sake and five boxes of Asahi beer.

"It's just a number, dude. Don't pay any mind to it."

"You're not understanding, dear customer. It's illegal to sell alcohol to a minor."

"Ugh, come on, I'm thirsty, I just need a drink."

"If you're thirsty there is a variety of soft drinks in the hallway-"

"No! I don't want a soda, I want a drink" replied the silver-haired, raising his voice. The teenager leaned towards the cashier, looked sideways and whispered "Listen, I'm fine with just two bottles of whiskey."

"Oi, oi, this is not a bargain. I can get in trouble for even selling you a single can of beer," Said the young cashier, recoiling away from the silver-haired.

"Come on man. Don't be such a wimp. Listen, if you sell me the whiskey I will give you…this." Tony took out a hundred-dollar bill and stretched it in front of the cashier's nose.

The store clerk let out a nervous laugh and scratched his cheek.

"_Is he trying to bribe me?"_

"Eh? What do you say, Shinpachi-kun? "He asked with a grin, waving the bill from side to side.

"My name's not Shin-"

"It doesn't matter, Kin-chan. What matters is that you can earn a hundred American bucks just by giving me my bottles of Jack" the lad sniffed the bill and let out a satisfied sigh "Ahhh ... It smells like freedom ... and lard" he sniffed the bill again and pulled it away with disgust "Ugh, so! What do you say, Kondo-san?"

"Why you do you keep calling me like manga characters?" The store clerk's face got serious as he shook his head "I'm sorry, I can't sell it to you. No matter how much you offer me, it's not right to break the law."

The Redgrave remained silent for a couple of seconds; his face was full of bewilderment, as if he had trouble taking in the words spoken by the man in front of him. His brow frowned suddenly.

The young adult who was barely four years older than he was got startled when he saw his threatening expression.

"I'm sorry! Why don't you come back when you are of proper age?"

Anthony said nothing else; he just knocked down the candy and bubble gum shelf that was attached to the counter and walked away, grumbling.

Behind him was a teenager a little younger than he was. The brown-haired boy who had in his hands a few mangas and DVDs of anime of magical girls, watched the whole scene with confusion. He kept looking at the silver-haired while he walked through the exit.

"What's that dude's problem?" the customer asked to the cashier.

"He got angry because I didn't sell him this," the clerk replied, pointing at the liquors.

"What!? That's a lot of alcohol! Was he planning a party or something?"

"I don't know, but honestly he looks like a thug."

"Yeah, and his attire is really weird. Maybe he's doing some sort of cosplay?"

* * *

(Several minutes later…)

Redgrave walked with his hands tucked in his pockets, grumbling to himself about how much he disliked being in Japan and about how much of a 'pansy' everyone was. He was walking crestfallen through a park, debating whether it had really been worth taking that job. Although, he was already here after all, there was no point on regretting the decision, all there was left was to finish the job as soon as possible and leave to finally forget about these lands.

"Rough night?" Asked a person sitting on a bench.

"Eh?" The teenager mumbled, looking up and over his shoulder.

"I asked if you were having a rough night," the person repeated again.

"More boring than rough, to be honest," he replied, stopping on his tracks.

The silver-haired turned around completely and detailed that person. He was a middle-aged man, black hair with a yellow strand on his bangs, violet eyes, goatee and an extremely relaxed expression. He was dressed in a slightly stained purple yukata and wooden flip-flops. His appearance was peculiar outside his dressing. As much as he detailed his face, the Redgrave could not find enough ethnic characteristics to identify his race. He had Asian features, but also Western, yet not enough to classify him with either. He was not Japanese, Tony was certain of that, but he was not Western either. Yet that was not what cached the young Hunter's attention. No, it was the ominous aura surrounding the man. He wasn't a devil, Redgrave was absolutely certain of it, but he wasn't human either, maybe that's why he didn't had concise ethnic characteristics.

His curiosity itched enough that he got closer and took a seat next to him on the bench.

"New in town?" Asked the ominous man.

"Yeah, I arrived this afternoon but I'm already having issues with the local customs."

The black-haired man laughed at the comment and grinned at the boy.

"It do be like that sometimes. I also had my streak of awkward moments the first time I was here. The Japanese usually are -"

"Bland?" The Redgrave interrupted with a raised eyebrow.

"Rigid," he said, finishing what he started and correcting the boy. "But only at the beginning. Try to interact with more people and you will see that besides being polite they can be some of the nicest people there are."

"I don't plan on staying long enough to prove if that's true."

"Oh really? I thought you were an exchange student or something like that. Are you here for pleasure then?"

"No, businesses," the silver-haired replied, stretching his legs and looking toward the starry sky.

"You look too young to be traveling for business."

"Age is just a number. Even for an old man like you" he replied sharply, although with a grin in his lips.

The man chuckled at the boy's comment.

"It is true that it's only a number, but years also bring experience and wisdom. You may not understand many things because of how young you are, but not everything is as it seems at first."

"I have my streak of war stories, old man, I'm young not inexperienced. You said it yourself, not everything is as it seems at first."

"I know," The man replied with an amused smirk.

"And? What are you? Some type of self-help guru or something? Are you here to give conferences to the salary men with midlife crisis? Or did you came for pleasure? No pun intended, of course. "

The man let out a series of hearty laughs because of the questions.

"No, I'm not a guru. I've traveled a lot, that's all. I'm here for a bit of both, pleasure and business, but more for pleasure."

"What? Women?"

The man looked at the teenager and peeled his teeth with a mischievous smile.

"Japanese women are the best, but no, I didn't mean that. I came to investigate something related to a hobby of mine. What about you? What's your story? What business brought such an experienced young man like you here?"

"If I tell you, I'd have to kill you later," he replied jokingly as he shrugged.

"Hahaha. I get the hint."

"Hey, old man. Speaking of business, do you want to earn a quick buck?"

"Hmm?" He muttered, raising an eyebrow and looking at the lad expectantly.

"Sadly, the Japanese don't share your feelings about the experience and age and everything you just said. I need a drink and nobody wants to sell me alcohol because I'm supposedly a 'minor' and it's illegal and all of that crap. Buy me a few bottles of whisky and some beers and I'll give you a little something so you can go to a brothel or whatever. How does that sound to you? "

"Aren't you too young to be drinking?" The man questioned, raising his eyebrow again.

The Redgrave narrowed his eyes and looked at him with mild irritation.

"Just kidding, just kidding," laughed the black-haired, raising both hands. "I understand what it is like to feel like having a drink. But I have a condition."

The teenager didn't ask, instead he looked at him, waiting for him to finish.

"I don't want your money, just let me drink a couple of beers with you, what do you think?"

"Well, cracking a cold one with someone from time to time is not that bad, I guess," he agreed, shrugging off.

Tony handed the man a few yen, he stood up and walked to the store in front of the park.

The silver-haired kept looking up at the sky. Contemplating on the strange man, wondering what he was and what he was up to in town, if he was planning anything or if he was just another passer by just like himself. He gave up not long after; after all, the man's intentions were not his problem. The minutes passed so quickly that he did not realize when the raven-haired returned and sat down on the bench again.

The peculiar man opened a case of beers, took out a can, handed it to the teenager, and then took one for himself.

They both took a sip at almost the same time, although the Redgrave's was much longer, so much that it emptied half the can.

"I couldn't help but notice you have a certain ... 'dislike' for this place. If you dislike it so much, what are you doing here? "The man asked.

"It's not… dislike. I have nothing against Japan or its people ... it's just that ..." Tony drank one more sip and finished the can "It brings me back memories."

"Bad memories?" The man asked as he gave him another can.

"No, but it reminds me of something I had and lost. I've spent so much time trying to forget that, to ignore it ... and being here I can't help but think so much more about it" he replied, crushing the old can and throwing it into the trash can that was about twenty feet from where they were sitting.

"Huh ... I get you; it's a journey of self-discovery."

"No, no," he chuckled with some melancholy while shaking his head. "It's nothing like that. I already told you, I came only for business, I'll leave when I'm done."

"Your Japanese is quite good; you should consider staying a little longer to continue practicing it."

"It's not really a skill I care to develop."

The man crushed his empty can as well and threw it into the same dumpster although his bounced off one of the edges and nearly fell to the floor. Noticing that it did not fell, the man sketched a small victory smile.

"Tell me ...boy..."

"Hmm?"

"Do you believe in fate?"

"What? No, that's just nonsense. People's lives are not dictated by something written in a book by some bitter old man."

"There are many ways to interpret fate, not only as something predestined but as important decisions to be taken. Sometimes they're not clear decisions or that seem right at first, sometimes they're decisions that go against everything we believe and know ... But that's the challenge of making those decisions. That's the difficulty of 'accepting' our fates. Haven't you thought that maybe it's your fate to be here? That instead of running away from that which you want to forget, instead of ignoring it, you should confront it? I don't know it's just ... something that crossed my mind."

_"It's time for you to cast off your pride and embrace your fate."_ Those last words of an old friend echoed in the young man's mind.

"Didn't take you for an urban philosopher."

"Am not, I only had enough time and years to gain experience."

"Thanks for the chit-chat, Mr. Homeless-philosopher-san, but I have to leave now "spoke the teenager, standing up and taking the bags that his drinking partner had brought from the konbini.

"If you need another drink or just want to talk to someone, I'm always nearby here."

"Uh huh."

The boy began to walk away from the man, when he was around fifty feet away; a beautiful Japanese girl was walking towards his direction. The girl with long raven hair and violet eyes was heading towards the bench where the man was sitting.

She looked at the silver-haired young man with something that could only be described as shock on her face, like seeing something so disconcerting that you can't help but look in awe. Tony noticed this and gave her a playful smile accompanied by a flirtatious wink. The gesture took the girl out of her surprise-induced trance and she ignored him, pretending nothing happened, which caused the young man in red to jeer.

"Remember that not everything is what it seems at first, Dante." The man's voice said, with a certain seriousness that lacked before.

Redgrave stopped dead on his tracks and widened his eyes. He turned around instantly but there was no one on the bench, even the girl had disappeared. He frowned slightly but not in anger or annoyance, but in intrigue as he smirked. He returned his gaze to the front and looked at the half-empty can in his hand then finished it and crushed it and dropped it on the floor.

"This gig just keeps getting more interesting."

* * *

(Half an hour later…)

He arrived at the house that would serve as his safe house for his stay on the country. However, something curious happened to him before entering. There was a backpack with books and school supplies on the step of his door with a note attached to it that said 'do not miss classes; it's the best place to monitor your targets.' Next to it, was a schedule of classes, it appears he was going to pass as a second year student. He looked around, sensing they were watching him, most likely to make sure he finished the job. After a groan of annoyance, he took the backpack and entered the place.

On the way home, he bought two pizza boxes for dinner.

Redgrave took a seat on one of the stools, opened a bottle of whiskey, grabbed a slice of pizza and put the file on the counter to take a look but this time paying more attention.

He laid down the data sheets from each one and inspected them individually.

"Kouh Academy is a high school that opened its doors to male students last year, being an exclusive school for women since its foundation. Objective A usually takes refuge in the old school building which still stands after remodeling to make room for the new male students. Their façade is to be an occult research club ..." Tony frowned his face with confusion "Occult research club? What the in the hell is that supposed to mean? Are they like Mystery Inc. or...? Bah, I don't give a damn about any of this." he said, crumpling the paper and throwing it away "Now ... Rias Gremory" The lad mumbled, taking the info sheet on the red-haired girl.

The teenager took a black sharpie from the backpack with school supplies and looked back at the picture; he remained thoughtful for a few seconds. Because of his awful attention span, he knew he wouldn't remember her name so he had to give all of them a nickname that he could associate with their physical appearances to remember both.

"You look like a princess so that's what I'll call you" he said, writing the words "The Princess" on the picture "Hmm…" the next info sheet was of a young woman with black hair and violet eyes. Her gaze was very gentle and quite motherly. "Akeno Himejima ...You will be 'the Onee-san.' Who else? 'Yuuto Kiba' huh, I bet he was in even before it became a mixed school. 'Pretty face' you'll be, you delicate flower. Koneko Toujou ... Well you're kind of a midget aren't you? ..." he searched in the info sheet to come by with something that could help him make up a nickname. "Species: Nekomata; reincarnated as a devil. 'Reincarnated as a devil?' How does it that works? First time I've heard about that. Well, it doesn't matter; you'll be Victoria, the white cat."

He paused to eat and pass his dinner with the strong taste of whiskey. In his interlude, Redgrave unwittingly began to read the biographies of his targets. As he read more and more, his instincts told him that something wasn't adding with the job, there was something wrong and sketchy with it. That feeling was uncommon for him, especially given the fact that the job involved devils. He's never had second thoughts or doubts about killing a devil but the conditions for the jobs seemed a little too atypical. After finishing the first pizza and half of the second along with the whole bottle of Jack Daniel's, he looked through the other files.

"Sona Sitri, heiress of the Sitri Clan, sister of...Hmm ...President of the Student Council? The other one is president of that occult research club ... That means I can catch them both in isolated places." He paused, bit a slice of pepperoni pizza and looked again at the picture of the short black-haired girl with glasses. "If they're devils and they're hiding among humans, they'll recognize my presence immediately. I can't just go guns blazing, that would get the human students involved and it would be a slaughter." He remained silent with a meditative expression for a few seconds, until he exploded; letting out a loud groan while scratching his head with both of his hands "This is annoying, it pisses me off! I want to finish this quickly and go home, why do I have to take the boring route!?"

Tony finished eating what was left of the pizza and drank a few beers; he then put the rest away in the fridge. He prepared himself to sleep, at first he was going to sleep in the main bedroom but blamed the nightmares he had on the bed and finally decided to sleep on the couch. As he passed the bed sheets and the pillow from the main room to the living room, he saw the pictures and the file in the counter.

"_These people ... If you didn't tell me they were devils, I would've thought they're regular students. And all that information ...That's not data you can collect in a few hours or a few days... It's very detailed information ... They've been watching them for a long time…It even feels like an assassination job instead of a devil hunt. If he or they have all of this info, why they don't do it themselves instead of hiring me? Also…why me specifically and not an official Hunter from the Syndicate? It's all so…odd, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't add up with this gig…"_

The teenager let out a long sigh and threw himself on the couch after turning off the lights.

"_He said something about a Dark Knight or something." _Echoed in his mind.

"…"

Tony remained awake a few more hours looking at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep.

* * *

(The next morning…)

The platinum-haired lad was standing in front of the entrance to the Kuoh Academy; it was his first time in a school, instead of getting excited it was extremely tedious for him. His eyes were reddish as he wasn't used to being awake so early, so he was more irritable than usual. He had dressed in the typical uniform of the academy. A long-sleeved white dressing shirt with the collar and the next three buttons unbuttoned, on top of it a black blazer which he also wore without buttoning; black pants and instead of the appropriate dress shoes he wore his black combat boots. On his right shoulder he carried his backpack and on his left, his guitar case with his hardware.

He let out a long yawn and stretched his neck. He watched all the students entering, some were excited, some discouraged and others in a hurry but none of them were his targets.

A brown-haired boy stumbled against his shoulder as he came running.

"Sorry!" The teenager shouted before entering at quick pace. "Motohama, Matsuda, I bought the new volume of ..." The young man's voice was lost in the distance as he stopped paying attention to it.

The Devil Hunter looked up and focused on the old school building, where his targets were supposed to meet. His lips curved upwards in a wide smug full of confidence when he realized that there was movement in one of the windows of the building, indicating that they had already noticed his presence.

"Let's get this party started, shall we?" He laughed with the excitement only his job could provide him before entering school grounds.


	3. Mission 03

"This is your classroom," said the beautiful black-haired young woman, pointing at the sliding door.

"Thanks, I seriously couldn't understand the schedule, reading Kanji is not my strong suit."

"Ara, I'm sure you will eventually learn. It's just a matter of practice," she said with a sweet smile drawn on her face.

"Also for the uwa-uwa," he tried to say, pointing at his feet. Instead of wearing his old black boots now, he was sporting white rubber sneakers.

"Uwabaki," she said, being thoughtful with the foreigner who barely understood the local customs.

"Yeah, that" he laughed with embarrassment while rubbing his nape, something that seemed more than a little out of character for him "Thank you ... uhmm ..."

"Himejima Akeno."

"Redgrave, Anthony Redgrave."

"Nice to meet you, Redgrave-san," she spoke, bowing politely. "I hope you have a nice day. If you have any further questions, please contact the Student Council or your class representative."

"Thanks again, Akeno-san."

She smiled one more time before leaving.

The Devil Hunter watched as the Japanese girl walked away; he stood by the entrance of his classroom staring at her. Indeed, she was a devil; although her appearance was far from the creatures he has faced before, it was impossible to deny her being a devil. Despite having confirmation of her true nature, that wasn't what caught his eye, nor was it her undeniable physical beauty. A person lacking analytical abilities wouldn't have been able to notice it, and even though he was not the sharpest person or the most observant, he had spent enough time observing people, humans, from afar that he gained the capacity to recognize certain patterns in people's behaviors; a a sort of instinct. For such reason he was the only one on that hallway who noticed her restlessness, the precaution she had when speaking to him and even the distance she maintained; those were not signs of demureness or distrust, it was genuine fright. Not unlike that of a deer that realized it's being stalked by an apex predator and knows that any sudden move could lead it it's death. That was not his intention, to intimidate her; in fact, he did not even recognize her at first until he approached to ask for assistance with the schedule and yet; Akeno managed to mask her surprise enough so that the other students would not notice it. What made all the circumstance even more ironic was that they both blatantly knew the true nature of one another and neither said a word about it, not even a slight innuendo; they treated each other like two strangers interacting for the first time in a school environment.

"_Weird ... I didn't felt any hostility on her part; she wasn't even on her guard despite being so scared. This feels…off…Usually this is the part where devils attack me but she seemed more awed than anything else…_" the young man scratched his head and let out a sigh of resignation, "_I guess it's a good thing she didn't attacked me, would've been a pain in the ass to fight her off while protecting the students…Shit, what is it with this job?" _

"You are the new transferred student from abroad, right?" spoke a voice behind him.

The silver-haired did not notice it at first, him being so distracted by his own thoughts, but he turned around just enough to see over his shoulder once he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat to get his attention.

It was a brown haired woman who couldn't be older than 25.

Tony said nothing; he just looked at her, waiting for her to say what she wanted with him. He was so unconcerned with the whole matter of attending classes that he did not even care to show courtesy to someone who very obviously was a teacher.

The woman glared at him with squinted eyes due to his rudeness.

"Are you the exchange student?" she asked again, this time her voice was dragging hints of displeasure.

"Yup."

"Come in then, your classmates are already inside. I will introduce you."

The teenager tucked his hands in his pockets and shrugged off.

"By the way, button up your shirt, please," said the woman before sliding the door open.

The boy just chuckled and followed her into the classroom.

He and the teacher stood in front of the whiteboard, as soon as the students noticed the teacher, the whole room went silent, although the attention was not precisely directed at her.

Many stares of curiosity were all over him, some were even ogling him, mostly the girls.

"Students, as of today a new exchange student will be joining us" the teacher now addressed him "Please introduce yourself."

The silver-haired lad looked straight ahead, toward the students sitting at their desks. Everyone's eyes were focusing on him. The teenager opened his mouth ... and let out a long yawn.

"Sup? Name's Tony" he said in such a boredom filled voice tone that most of the students fell to the ground.

"What kind of introduction is that!?" shouted half the classroom.

The teacher cleared her throat again. She looked at the new student with a condescending smile, her eyelid twitching from the effort of containing her own annoyance.

"T-Tony-kun ... Could you introduce yourself properly?"

"What? I already said my name" he replied, shrugging with confusion marked on his face.

"It's not just your name, and you didn't even say it full. Tell us a little about yourself, about your hobbies, what you liked about Japan so far, that would help us to get to know you better."

Tony sighed in annoyance and rolled his eyes. He crossed his arms and shrugged again.

"My name is Tony Redgrave, I'm American. I just arrived in the country; I don't really have any particular hobbies, unless you consider a hobby cleaning my guns and getting completely shitfaced until-

"Tony-kun! Watch your tongue," exclaimed the teacher with her eyes wide open.

"What? You're the one asking about my hobbies."

"L-let's skip the hobbies part."

"Well, I like pizza and strawberry sundaes, also beer; Scotch too although bourbon is also good but if it's up to me I'd choose a good beer over bourbon any day. Speaking of beer, yesterday I tried a local brand and to tell you the truth, it's not bad at all, it's taste is kinda-"

"Tony-kun!" The teacher raised her voice again, this time she seemed even more uncomfortable about the nature of the minor's pastimes.

The scene caused the whole classroom to erupt in laughter.

"Uhm ... uhmm ..." The teacher cleared her throat and paused for a bit to recover from the horror of listening to the platinum-haired punk. "Please take a seat; sit in front of Hyoudou Issei-kun."

Redgrave was about to take the first step but he stopped to look at the teacher and ask where he was supposed to sit, she went ahead and answered him sensing what the question would be.

"He's Hyoudou-kun," she said, pointing to a boy with brown hair.

The young orphan walked to his place at a calmed pace, his face only showed boredom and disinterest.

While he was on his way, his classmates had started gossiping and muttering about him.

"Look at his hair! Do you think it's natural? "cried a young girl with excitement.

"I don't know but he looks like a punk, seems dangerous," answered a male student.

"His surname is Redgrave that is sooo cool!"

"You think he's single?" Asked a female student to her girlfriend.

"Probably, I mean, he just arrived in the country, right?"

"He's hot in a sort of bad boy way, I like him!"

"Hey now! I saw him first!"

"What're you talking about!? We saw him at the same time! "

"Yes, but my eyesight is better than yours, so…"

"Bastard, he just arrived and he's already popular with the girls." A male student roared, 'hurt' by the attention the Redgrave was getting.

"Not gonna lie, dude's kinda good looking…It pisses me off!"

Tony took a seat at the place indicated by the teacher. He dropped his backpack to his side and crossed his arms, staring at the whiteboard with a facial expression that only made more obvious his lack of interest in everything surrounding him.

"_This guy ... he doesn't even have ten minutes in class and the girls already love him...Life's not fair!", _mentally cried the brown-haired teenager who was sitting behind the newcomer. "Wait a sec ... He looks like…"

Hyoudou Issei tapped Tony's shoulder to get his attention. The silver-haired turned his face enough to see him over his shoulder.

"Hey! You're the guy I saw yesterday at Family Mart, the one who tried to buy the entire liquor section."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied with the same boredom that was reflected on his face.

"Yeah, I'm sure I saw you yesterday. So ...You're American? Wh-

"Listen, Hyoudou-kun, was it?" I didn't came to make friends, so save your breath, will ya'?" He interrupted in a more abrupt tone than it was necessary to get his point across, before straightening his head and closing his eyes.

_"What a douche ..."_ thought Issei of the manners of the newly arrived.

Tony fell asleep with tremendous ease, perhaps because of the short accumulated time of rest he had since he left his office or more likely, because of the tremendous boredom he was feeling that allowed him to fall asleep easier than usual.

"Students, the history teacher could not come because of a personal matter so we will start with my algebra class. Open your books on page thirty-two… "said the teacher, but the Hunter didn't listened to her, he had already fallen into a deep slumber.

The hours passed with haste, so much so that he did not notice it. By the time he opened his eyes, the classroom was already empty. He raised his head that was resting on his arms and on the desk and looked out the window. The schoolyard was full of students everywhere; he assumed it was due to the recess. Redgrave stood up from his seat, stretched his arms and let out a long yawn.

Lunch break, as good time as any to make a reconnaissance of the school grounds and monitor his objectives who were most likely already leery of his presence.

* * *

/ Occult Research Club Facilities/

Akeno Himejima, the ideal "Yamato Nadeshiko", was near the main window of the upper floor of the old school building. The beautiful black-haired was standing some feet away from a young woman equal to or even more beautiful than herself, this was the Club's President, Rias Gremory.

The girl with fiery red hair looked out the window with uneasiness that she managed to hide with a serious countenance and a hardened brow.

"You say you ran into him at the entrance?"

"Yes, that is why it took me a while to get to the classroom. He just ... he approached me and asked me for help to find his own classroom. It took me by surprise at first, his demonic power is ..."

"On pair to that of a High Class Devil, I know. Even from here I can feel it, he doesn't even try to hide it. What did you say his name was?"

"Anthony Redgrave, said by himself. There is no Clan with that name, is there?"

"No, I've never heard of such name," the redhead replied in a low but somewhat rattled tone.

"Maybe it's a stray devil," said a blond young man who was sitting on a couch across the room, he had a cup of tea in his hands.

"If he were, he would know better than to seek refuge in this school. Full of humans and under shared jurisdiction between a Sitri and a Gremory? Any stray devil would be aware that such thing is just a way to attract attention and an immediate death sentence. Leaving aside the amount of demonic power he emits, there is something…out of the ordinary with it…it feels so…"

"Raw?" Added the Himejima, complimenting her Master's statement.

"Yes. I vaguely remember having felt something like that in the past but ... it was so many years ago that I am not even sure if it is the same feeling or not" she said in a thoughtful manner, trying to remember what she just had mentioned.

Rias looked away from the window and into her Vice-President.

"Relay a message to Sona; tell her that I want to meet her here at the end of classes. I doubt he is a guest of hers, but I want to be completely sure. Also call Grayfia, ask her if Onii-sama gave permission to someone to enter our territory. I want to cover all our bases before we act."

"As you order, President," said Akeno, bowing and leaving the room.

The Gremory turned her attention again at the window; from there she had a clear view of the strange silver-haired devil who was wandering around the school.

* * *

/Schoolyard/

Tony was lying under the shade of a large tree, scanning the area. He let out another yawn, but this one was not from sleepiness but from boredom. Since he ran into Akeno, he had not had any other encounters with his other objectives, it wasn't hard to imagine why, they were probably being cautious as to not have a run in with him. Still, he could feel a concentration of demonic presences in the old school building, there were multiple presences but were fewer than the ones he felt coming from the new school building. He assumed the latter were those of the Student Council members.

For the moment he was going to keep watching them from afar, the least he needed was to put them and himself in a position where they had to fight in open broad light, inevitably getting the human students and teachers in the cross fire.

Brushing that aside to focus on less significant matters, he confirmed the file´s line about the school having a greater ratio of females to male students; which in turn made him grin with amusement as most of the girls were considerably attractive. If it weren't for the fact that he planned for his stay to be as short as possible, he would take the chance to at least try to date one of the girls.

"Uhm ... Hi"

Redgrave turned his attention to the voice. It was a group of about five teenage girls, seemingly of second year, who had gathered under the tree canopy.

"Hey," the lad greeted back, more than a little surprised.

"You're Tony-san, right?" Another of the girls spoke, although she gave the impression of being quite shy since she avoided eye contact.

"Yeah, last time I checked my ID, that's what everyone calls me. What-" he tried to ask before one of the other girls interrupted him.

"Here!" she squeaked with embarrassment, leaning over and handing him a letter wrapped in an envelope.

The other girls followed suit. Before he knew it, he had in his hands five letters wrapped in pink envelopes with tiny heart-shaped stickers. As soon as he took the envelopes, the girls sprinted out in the opposite direction with their faces as red as ripe tomatoes.

"What the hell did just happen?" The teenager thought aloud. He opened the first letter and glanced at it. "Love letters? For real?"

The boy let out a hearty, loud laughter at the comically absurd fact that he was unable to read hiragana or kanji, which prevented him from understanding the letters. Nevertheless, he saved them in the inside pocket of his blazer. This at least gave him hope that his rotten luck with women may take a turn for the better.

_"I guess the intention is what matters,"_ he reflected, not being able to help but to feel flattered, as this was the first time something like that happened to him. _"I should grab a bite, I forgot to have breakfast."_

"Hey you, Gaijin," said a man, wearing the same uniform as Tony despite not looking much like a student, even towering over him.

The third year student measured well over the six feet mark, maybe shy of seven. His head was shaved, his skin tanned and he had a musculature that could make him pass as a bodybuilder but his arms were those of a heavy weight pugilist. Looking at his face, the first detail you would come across would be a large scar that begins in his left temple and went down up to his cheekbone. His eyes were sunken and he stared as if he had bad eyesight.

The young man banged his fist wrapped in bandages against his palm and looked at the Hunter with his brow furrowed.

"What? You're part of the welcome party? " said the teenager, chuckling, not feeling the least bit threatened by the bully.

"You could say that we are something like that, yes" spoke a second student, unlike the other one, his tone and his mannerisms were softer, although a more correct way to describe it would be to say that his hostility was more passive than that of the giant, or at least it seemed like that at the time. "My name is Ryujin. My friend here is Kotoma and that one is Himura", while giving the introductions, he pointed at a boy with spiky, dry dark hair that was standing right besides Redgrave.

"What's up, doc? You good?" He asked jokingly to the second-year student who looked even more of a thug than Tony himself.

The dark-haired boy opened his eyes widely, enraged at the Gaijin's laidback attitude.

"Hah!? YOU THINK I'M FUNNY, SHITHEAD? I'LL KILL YOU," suddenly roared Himura, swinging his arms open in an over the top way.

The Redgrave just raised an eyebrow and gave him a funny look

"Are you ok?"

"You piece of-"

"Wait, wait, Himura," said the trio leader, Ryujin.

This was a young man of a closer age to the silver-haired. He was lean but built like an athlete; his long raven hair reached his shoulders and was held by a ponytail. His face was pale as snow and his features where sharp and delicate, of the three he was the one who looked the least like a delinquent.

"We only came to meet you in person; we usually do this with all of our kouhai. You know, just to test the fresh meat. By your attitude I can-"

"Nah uh" the half-breed cut him short, waving his index finger at him. "I know what you're here for. You're the jocks, right? I mean, it's common sense; we can't have a high school story without the bullies." Anthony crossed his arms and took a couple of steps until he was face to face with the trio leader. "What do you want? My lunch money? Draft me into your little gang? Or you just came to catch these hands? Cause' that's how you catch these hands"

"Eh? Who you think you are to talk to the boss like that? "Himura bellowed, recoiling his right arm to throw a haymaker at the silver-haired.

A sudden white flash blinded the young delinquent before he could stretch his arm. He got staggered by the surprise and blinked a couple of times before falling on his back, unconscious.

"I guess that's a yes."

Ryujin was greatly alarmed at the sight; he did not catch even a glimpse of the moment the silver-haired boy struck Himura. Still he took a few steps back and adopted a typical defensive stance of the Gōjū-Ryū style of Karate.

Kotoma raised his hands until they were covering each side of his jaw, going for more of a boxing style.

The tall student stepped forward and threw a quick jab. The only thing his fist came into contact was empty air. Kotoma's eyes went wide as he saw his arm being just mere inches away from Tony's face but without touching him. Redgrave dodged the blow by tilting his head ever so slightly to the right. A smug smile was drawn on the teenager's lips; the bully went ballistic when he noticed that.

Kotoma threw a combination of hooks and jabs trying to land a solid hit. Much to his misfortune, the Hunter continued to dodge every single one of the punches with terrifying ease. The heavy and slow pugilist soon burned out all of his stamina, in a matter of minutes he was already panting, barely able to stand his ground. He breathe in and threw a cross punch, Tony sidestepped out of the way and smacked him in the back of his head using his palm. The giant collapsed, knocked out by a blow that shook his brain against the walls of his own skull.

Ryujin swallowed, totally stunned by what just happened in front of him. One thing is to know how to handle yourself in a fight but the silver-haired lad's reflexes were practically inhuman.

"W-wow ... it appears you know a move or two. I will warn you though; I was the captain of the karate club at my previous school."

"You were? Then show me, Miyagi-san."

The karateka turned around to gain centrifugal force and threw a fast side kick. Tony caught his foot and lifted his leg, holding it so high that Ryujin began to hop awkwardly in order to keep himself from falling to the ground.

The Hunter clenched his fist and recoiled back his right arm. The bully covered his face with both of his forearms; however, that did not stop him from eating a knuckle sandwich courtesy of the platinum haired boy.

Ryujin flew some feet in the air and soon fell to the ground, accompanying his knuckle sandwich with a side dish of grass and dirt. In truth, he was clutching his bleeding mouth with both hands, holding onto the teeth that came loose from the impact.

A low and acute whine came from the young man who had his forehead pressed against the ground.

Redgrave started to hop on his tiptoes and rubbed his nose with his thumb. Another mocking grin appeared across his face as he made a gesture with his fingers signaling his opponent to come closer. At this point, that was nothing but a mockery towards the third year student and a tribute to his favorite martial artist movie star. Ryujin was more than out of combat, he would be lucky if he ends up with enough teeth left in his mouth for the graduation photo.

"Come on, Miyagi-san, we haven't even started to warm up."

Everyone at the schoolyard witnessed Tony's 'welcome bash' to the academy. For obvious reasons, no one interfered, keeping their distance. The result of the fight only served to reinforce the idea of Tony being a juvenile delinquent.

The students kept at bay, except for three people. A girl with short black hair and glasses, next to her was another girl with glasses too but this one was considerably taller and her hair was fashioned in a "hime" style, and the third person was a boy who looked no more than sixteen, blond hair and average build.

"What is going on here?" The girl in the middle demanded.

Tony noticed them but chose not to answer the question, pretending he didn't listened the first time.

"Saji, check if they are not injured and take them to the infirmary and then with the director, I have had enough with these trouble makers," she said, addressing the young man at her side.

The blond nodded and reached for the bullies to inspect them.

The girl walked up to the teenager and stood in front of him with her arms crossed. She stared at him with a severe expression; there was a certain coldness in her violet eyes.

"You, come with me."

Tony stared directly into her eyes, he couldn't help but smirk towards the devil. Finally, he was face to face with one of his main objectives, he could feel the great demonic power emanating from her but it was nothing he could not deal with. For a second there he almost forgot he was inside a school surrounded by human civilians, to his better judgment, he choose to remain calmed.

"Sorry, my momma taught me not to go with strangers," he replied with a shrug.

"I am the President of the Student Council."

"I imagined it was something along those lines, you look like a smart girl. It's the glasses that gave it away, you know?" he remarked jokingly.

"Let's go to the Council room, if I am satisfied with your defense, I may let this slip as a minor offense for being your first day."

The black-haired and her Vice-President went ahead, heading to the school building. Redgrave noticed all the students watching the scene, so he decided to follow the devils in order to avoid raising suspicion among the humans.

In a couple of minutes, they were inside the Council room. All the members were devils, each one of them. All the gazes were onto him again, some stared at him with surprise, some with curiosity but all of them shared the same intensity.

"Knowing Ryujin and his gang, I can tell they most likely stared the fight. I do not need your version, that is not the reason why I brought you here", said the girl, closing the sliding door behind her.

The Devil Hunter let out a shocked gasp as he peeled his eyes open in surprise; of course, his gestures were so over the top that his mockery was plainly obvious.

"President! You're telling me you bamboozled me into coming here with you?"

"I could not speak openly in front of the other students, so I needed a reason to talk in private. Fortunately, you gave me a good excuse to do so."

Tony relaxed his stance and rested his left shoulder on the wall. He crossed his arms and looked at the girl in front of him, the small mocking grin never leaving his face.

"I guess you can get an idea of who I am," she said, adjusting her glasses with her middle finger.

"Of course, the Student Council's President, right? Who else could you be?"

"There is no need for you to play dumb. I am Sona, the youngest daughter and heir to the Sitri Clan. The real question is ... Who are you? I will go ahead and assume that Tony Redgrave is just an alias, so do not try to fool me."

The teenager let out a small chuckle and nodded a couple of times.

"I got to admit, I've never seen a devil wearing glasses before. Guess that makes you smarter than average. You're right, my real name is not Tony, my name is Joe." Spoke the silver-haired, the smirk fade away as his voice got deeper and more serious.

Sona frowned in confusion.

"Joe? Joe who?"

"Joe Mama."

Suddenly the half-breed burst into a mix of laughter and wheeze, slapping his thigh with his right and holding himself to the wall with his left hand.

"I can't believe you fell for that! HAHAHAHA"

"..."

" ..."

More than insulted, the Sitri felt slightly annoyed at such childish behavior. The rest of the present Council with the exception of the President and Vice-President, exchanged puzzled looks.

"Yes I fell, very funny. Now answer the question."

"Everyone knows me as Tony, there's no need for you to call me any other way," he replied, wiping off a tear caused by the laughter.

"I'm not asking you what everyone calls you, I'm asking you what your name is," she retorted back in a very incisive tone.

The teenager's humorous expression disappeared in the blink of an eye, his face hardened as he scowled.

"Tony, the name's Tony."

Sona sighed and pushed up her glasses again.

"What do you want, Tony-san? What are you doing here? Under what jurisdiction did you enter this territory?"

"What do I want? A strawberry sundae and a couple of cold beers. What do I do here? I was hired to deal with some devils invading a school and posing as students."

After hearing those words, the servants of the Sitri went stiff. She slightly raised her hand, stopping them before anyone acted rashly.

Still staring at his silver-ish blue eyes, she asked the question that was in everyone's mind.

"What are you talking about? 'Invading'? We are students here, you are the trespasser."

He said nothing else and just kept direct eye contact. At that moment she could see how empty and cold his gaze was, those eyes didn't resemble any human or devil she had seen before; they were closer to those of a wild beast than a person's.

Because of her naturally stoic and quiet personality, she possessed a stare that could be misguided as cold, and maybe it was to a certain extent, but compared to his, it fell quite short.

The tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife, however no one made the first move, no one took the initiative. The members of the dark-haired girl's peerage were ready to protect their Master, Sona was prepared to defend herself…Tony had his hands clenched like fists, waiting for one of the devils to attack him, even unarmed he was certain the majority of them were easy to dispatch.

The school bell rang, interrupting them. The Redgrave raised his sight; recognizing this was signalizing the break was over. He lowered his face and his gaze fell on the Sitri's violet eyes.

"I suppose that means I have to go back to my classroom."

She nodded slowly without breaking eye contact.

The silver-haired lad turned around and opened the sliding door.

"I will be watching you."

He looked over his shoulder and grinned.

"And I'll be seeing you."

That said, he left the Council room.

* * *

(A while later…)

"Ah, you must be the new transferred student. Tony-kun, right? " The teacher who was about to give the class questioned.

Being so deep in his own thoughts, the boy barely noticed him. The half-breed, who was crestfallen with his arms crossed, raised his head when he realized the teacher was looking at him.

"Yes?" He muttered without really knowing what the question was in the first place.

"Welcome. You can call me Ryōma-sensei. Ganbatte kudasai! " Now he addressed the rest of the class "Open your books on page twenty-two. Do you remember last week's exercises? We will resume from there."

The Redgrave stopped listening after "welcome."

"_Keep a low profile, huh? How the hell do you expect me to do so if everyone keeps asking me if I'm the new guy...? This is pointless, I have to make the first move while I still have an advantage…"_ returning to his resting stance, he closed his eyes. A mental image of Akeno and Sona remained in his mind. "_Heh, you know how I look, which one is my classroom…It seems they're more concerned than me in keeping up _appearances_." _

He opened his eyes again and looked towards the window. His laidback expression was gone, now he was serious.

"_What are you talking about? 'Invading'? We are students here, you are the trespasser."_

"..."

He sighed and rested his forehead on his forearms to doze until classes were over; he decided to stop overthinking, it was useless. As odd as those devils were, and as suspicious as the job seemed, he did not wanted to keep going over it; it's ridiculous to even consider devils being more than monster that fed on humans.

Once again, the hours went away in a blink, or in his case, in a nap. Despite all those hours of sleep, he didn't rest even a bit; the good thing was that he did not got any nightmares.

He opened his eyes, just as last time he was the only one left in the classroom. He got up from his seat and looked at the backpack at his feet; he left it there and went outside the school building.

The sun was setting but the sky was not quite dark yet. However, most of the students had already left; the few that were still in school grounds were club members finishing their practices.

The half-breed stood on the steps of the door. He closed his eyes and focused on those demonic presences he had detected throughout the day. He could feel a great concentration coming from the old school building.

"Thirteen devils ... Two are stronger than the rest ... they must be the leaders ... there are two more that are below them in power ... I think one is the girl who took me to my classroom ... Hmm ... there's one that is harder to feel than the rest..." He thought out loud.

Redgrave walked to a tree; he had hidden his guitar case between the branches. He proceeded to take off his blazer to tie it to his hip and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt until they were at three-quarters. Then he gave a soft blow to the dense tree, this shook it and caused the guitar case to fall into his hands.

He stuck Rebellion's tip into the ground and tucked his guns in the space between the blazer and his pants.

The young man touched the grass, he could perceive a barrier surrounding the school, it was most likely to keep him inside. He immediately thought of the devil with glasses.

"Clever girl," he chuckled.

With his hand resting on the ground, he squatted down to gain momentum. A red circle with demonic characters formed under his feet.

* * *

/Inside the Occult Research Club/

"What do you know about him?" The beautiful red-haired asked to the elegant black-haired girl.

"Just about the same as you, Rias. Virtually nothing", the Sitri replied.

The servants of both heiresses occupied the interior of the Club. Rias was sitting behind a desk; Sona was standing in front of her. Each one had her Queen by her side. On the desk was projected as a hologram the image of a maid with silver hair. The stone-faced woman was looking toward the Heiress of the Gremory Clan.

"If neither you nor my brother invited him ... What is he doing here? It is as if he wanted to challenge us by exposing himself so openly."

"It is not like he wants to; that is exactly what he is doing."

"What do you believe his goal is?" asked the projection.

"Us, Grayfia-san. I had the opportunity to interrogate him briefly in the Student Council room. According to what he said, he is under the impression that we are 'invading the school' and posing as students. He said he was hired to deal with us. I tried to make him elaborate a little more, but he was not open to dialogue."

Rias frowned slightly.

"His intention is to kill us?" The redhead questioned in a severe tone.

"I can't think of anything else he was referring to when he said he was hired to 'deal' with us," the Sitri replied as she pushed up her glasses.

"Judging by his interaction with Sona-sama, it appears as if it's a big misunderstanding. Maybe there is a way to solve this peacefully?" Questioned the raven-haired girl standing next to Rias.

"It may as well be, but we have to prepare for the worst case scenario," Rias replied, leaning on her seat to stand up.

"Don't act recklessly, Ojou-sama. You have to interrogate him first and then decide what the most appropriate course to follow is. I will get ready and-"

Before the maid could finish the sentence, the main window burst into a thousand shards of glass flying everywhere and the subject of so many concerns among the young devils fell directly on top of the Gremory's desk.

Everyone's eyes opened as wide as they could. The room went silent immediately due to the sheer shock. No one attacked him right away as he was too close to the redhead. Sona and her Queen backed away while the Gremory did not seemed to flinch.

The silver-haired Hunter had his face dangerously close to hers. A very conceited smile was stamped on his face.

Redgrave glanced around with confusion and scratched his temple.

"Wait a minute …This isn't the toilet, this is the Occult Research Club!" he yelled with fake bewilderment as he stood up.

"Who are you?" Rias asked in a very threatening voice.

"Joe."

The redhead raised an eyebrow, puzzled.

"Don't ask," the Sitri barged in.

"Hey! Don't ruin my jokes, alright? " exclaimed the annoyed teenager. He looked back again at the girl in the desk and tilted his head slightly to the right as he stared at her. "Heh, you look even prettier in person…have we met each other somewhere else? I feel like I've seen you before."

Rias emitted a reddish aura from her body, she was about to raise one of her hands but the Devil Hunter drew Ivory and aimed it at her face.

"Uh, Uh. Don't ruin my introduction." He took Ebony out and pointed it at the Sitri. "You too, Shinpachi-kun. Stay put, unless you want me to reduce your IQ to single digits; I doubt even the glasses could help you pass as someone smart after that."

"What do you plan to achieve with this? What is your objective? " The Gremory asked.

"I'm not looking to achieve anything in particular; you're just devils that I need to take out. Don't take it so personal, this is just another gig for me. But I do have an objective; I want to have some fun. So tell me, Princess, shall we dance?"


	4. Notification on the story

**Hello, there dear readers. How you all been? I hope ok. I know it's against the site's rules to publish notifications like this but given the fact that I'm unable to explain it any other way, I'll have to bend the rules just this one time.**

**First things first, I know I said I would try to publish two or three chapters this month and the cliffhanger in the last chapter was kind of cheap but bear with me, Mission 04 was supposed to be out the following week. The thing is that two days after publishing the chapter, my PC started having issues with the OS, now I can't even boot windows. I'm not even sure if all the work I've done through out the years was deleted or it's still somewhere there in the HDD, I hope it is because if it's not I'm gonna cry like a little girl. Anyways, that's not it, as you know, the Novel Coronavirus has already spread to Mexico. We've been in a voluntarily quarantine lock down and still I was unlucky enough to caught it. Now don't worry, I'm 23 and healthy so I'm not at risk, I've been at home as to not spread it any further. This coupled with what happened to my PC has kept me unable to well... To keep writing and translating. Once I get over these issues I'll continue the story so please have a little patience.**

**One thing I will ask is, don't go and use Google Translator or any other Translators for that matter to read the Spanish version. Those translators tend to not take into account the context of what's written and just give a literal translation which is quite terrible. Believe me, I've tried cutting corners to publish the chapters faster but it left me with a mess. The other reason is that I've been rewriting the first seven chapters so what you read will probably be more than a little different to what I will be publishing in this version. Even some jokes are different. So keep those two things in mind.**

**Thank you for coming to my TED talk, dear readers. I wish you all well and, please, please stay at home. Don't go out unless it's completely necessary and even then, be careful.**

**Kind regards, **

**Gabriel**.


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